Category: Personal Development

For a lot of people this is the first workday of the new year and decade. As the new year starts a good question to ask is where do I wan to be at the end of the year? Steven Covey in his 7 habits of highly effective people says begin with the end in mind. Having the ability to get what you want starts with knowing what you want. Winning the sales game and developing winning posture also begins with goal setting. So then, as the new year begins, take the time to develop a clear picture of what you want to achieve this year.

Setting goals is not something that comes naturally for a lot of people. It is a skill that has to be developed. Setting goals requires that you first decide what you want and express it in a statement that is specific and measurable.

Goal setting should not only encompass your professional life, but also your personal life too. Set goals for your family, social, physical, mental, and spiritual areas of your life. You’ll find that setting goals in all of the areas of life that are important to you will give you a new outlook and purpose for being.

Once you have decided the areas where you want to set goals, then decide what you want to do, have, or be in those areas. For example, if you are setting your sales goals, you could have a gross sales volume, number of new accounts sold, or commissions goal. Whatever is important for you to measure set a goal around it. Give some serious thought to the goal. Make sure it is a goal that is important to you and that you want to achieve it.

Be sure to write your goals down. This is important so that you don’t forget or get confused about what you want to accomplish. Once you have written them down, put them in a place or several places where you can see them each day. Keeping your goals in the forefront of your mind leads you to do activities that will take you closer to your goals.

Goal setting is beneficial in so many ways. You probably have heard this before. The big question is will you take action? Taking action is what really makes the difference. If you keep putting off setting your goals you will find another month has gone by and nothing has happened. Successful people set goals and take action on the goals they set. Get started now to achieving what you want in 2010 by writing your goals down. Do it today! After all 1% of the year has already gone by!

I have a yellow lab and if you know anything about the breed you know that they are the most loving dogs around. They always want to be near you and lay at your feet. They just make excellent pets.

One thing about my lab though is that she is persistent with a capital “P”. If I go to the refrigerator or get something to eat, she takes her spot right next to me just in case a morsel drops to the floor or I break down and give her a sample. No matter how many times I nudge her away she always comes back. No shame, no embarrassment, no thinking “I got nudged away last time”, she’s right there.

If you want to win the sales game you have to develop the “yellow lab mentality” You have to be persistent. When people say “no” consider that this just a starting point of selling. After all, if no one says “no” you’re just an order taker and there is no selling involved.

The question is: what does it take to be persistent? Persistence is to continue steadfastly and the word carries the connotation of continuing in spite of resistance. For sales people to win the sales game persistence has to be about “keep on keeping on” despite the setbacks of lost deals, rejections, and tough circumstances like the economy.

Persistence is an attitude. If you are not being persistent it’s because you are not thinking persistent. If you let all the setbacks, disappointments, and the “no’s” keep you from being in action, it is your attitude that you need to work on. Here are a few tips for developing an attitude of persistence. Every morning, wake up and look in the mirror and say ” I am a persistent person.” Do the same thing before you go to bed at night. I’m not going to go into the science of affirmation here. Let’s just say you create new patterns of thinking when you do affirmations. Do this for thirty days and notice the difference.

So you’re probably thinking how can I do something for thirty days when I’ m not persistent? Don’t worry about the thirty days, just do one day. Then tomorrow, do one day….and so on. You could break it down to “this morning”. Don’t worry about tonight yet. Just do it this morning. You get the idea. Once you get it going you’ll find each day is a little bit easier. You’ll also find it easier to be persistent in your sales efforts too.

We’re dead smack in the middle of football season. Every Sunday and Monday teams line up to compete on the football field with the goal to win the game. The players expend a lot of energy on the field and one group of players will be elated at the end of the game and another group of players will be disappointed and think about “what if”. Just as interesting as the game, and more so in some instances, are the fans. Fan is short for fanatical and that is certainly an appropriate name for people who follow a sports team.

A fan is special. They root for the team and never give up hope. Their team could be down by three touchdowns with two minutes to go and the fan says: “it doesn’t look good but we can still pull it out. A touchdown here, two onside kick recoveries, score two more touchdowns. Yeah that’s doable in two minutes!” Well, that’s a fan for you.

You can sum up a fan in one word and that’s ENTHUSIASM. All fans have it. In fact you can’t be a fan without it. Zig Ziggler said that the last four letters of the word enthusiasm, IASM, makes a great acronym. He said IASM stands for: I Am Sold Myself. Now isn’t that true of fans. They are sold on their team. And, if you say something bad about their team, they will make you curse your mother for giving you birth. No question, they are sold on the team.

Zig made an application for sales people about the concept of “being sold”. He asked: “how could you sell something to someone else if you are not sold yourself?” Are you a fan of your company, the products you sell, the services you provide? If not, a good thing to do would be to examine why. You could get all the sales development training, the latest technology, and anything else, but if you are not sold on what you bring to the marketplace, you will not be successful.

C’mon be fanatical about your company and your products! The bigger fan you are the more you will sell.